I haven’t had a sighting in months. On line it seems to be sold out. I suppose it has a value in a civic emergency and there might be limits on purchases. But what are the manufacturers doing now?
I would imagine that hand sanitizer manufacturers are desperate for it. It’s also being used to make homemade sanitizer. It’s slightly more effective than ethyl alcohol at the same strength. The odd thing is that hand sanitizer is nowhere to be found, either, except for one lucky find that I mentioned before. It’s probably mostly going to hospitals and other health care centers, which is fine with me. I was tempted to order an entire case of Purell from a health supply warehouse that only sells it by the case, with a 4-week backlog, but now they’re no longer accepting back orders at all.
I guess it’s in the same situation as toilet paper. “We’re making it as fast as we can.” It’d be nice if we could have some of these basic supplies again now if we’re supposed to go back out there on the chain gang again.
Hand sanitizer pops up around here (Brooklyn, NY) sem-regularly. Usually not name-brand stuff, but still, 65% or 70% alcohol, good enough.
What can’t be found anywhere are N95 masks.
Or alcohol (ethyl or isopropyl). Or Clorox wipes, or Lysol.
I’ve got to imagine this is a massive, demand-side shock. Pre-covid, how often did you buy isopropyl alcohol? I have a half-full bottle - I’m guessing it’s around a pint - in my bathroom cabinet that says it’s best used by 2012. I imagine a lot of people are in a similar once-a-decade buying cycle on it. But now, everyone wants it at once. I don’t know the answer to your question, but if I had to guess, I’d say don’t expect it to be readily buyable again anytime soon.
I got 16 rolls of Scott today!
TP is a little different. That was a surge.
I did get 2 masks at CVS which they were happy to sell me. I can’t find an identifier on them. I wonder what an N95 looks like.
Just to add a little wrinkle, to clean cannabis resin off of objects you need it. Actually I don’t think that’s a little one. It might be a driver in this situation.
I’d agree with both of these posts. Isopropyl was indeed very much a once-a-decade purchase for me. When you need it, it’s handy to have on hand. But I suspect the primary steady users are people using alcohol wipes to inject daily. Production was probably never that heavy, because I doubt it tended to fly off the shelves. Ramping up is likely to be slow.
Meanwhile TP seems to be slowly returning, if still not near normal. My local small market scored a bunch of off-brand 4-packs that are still well-stocked as of yesterday and I snagged a 12-pack of Charmin at Target a couple of days ago. While it was earlyish at Target( ~10 a.m. ) and the shelf wasn’t heavily stocked( maybe another one-two dozen packs ), the fact that it was still there and people weren’t mobbing it suggests to me that supply is slowly starting to catch up with flagging demand.
As I say, anyone who owns a bong buys it a lot. In 2020 cannabis is big business.
Women use it a lot, and others for beauty and makeup.
I use it all the time as a catch-all cleaner. I usually buy more when I’m down to 4 bottles. i keep one in the garage, the basement, the bathroom and the kitchen. When any one of them is used up I buy a 2-pack.
I bought some 90% on Amazon for $20. A regular little bottle for $20.
Price gouging anyone?
I need isp. alcohol to clean my skin to stick my insulin pump and CGM monitor patch thingy on. My DIL found 6 bottles at a dollar store. She bought all 6.
I’m good for…idk…6 years now. :smack:
Yes, it doesn’t have to be Purell, as long as it genuinely contains more than 60% alcohol and is in the form of a gel with moisturizer. If it’s not a thick gel, it’s hard to rub all over your hands without losing half of it. I’ve heard that some of the ones being made by distilleries aren’t very thick.
The ones made according to the WHO recipe are pretty much exactly the same thickness as water. No gelling agents are allowed or any kind of scent or moisturizer. If you’re looking for that stuff buy brand names from before this stuff hit. All of the new producers are required to use one of two recipes with only 4 ingredients.
As one of those new producers I can finally buy IPA again. We’re able to get it from South Korea but it still way more expensive that buying/making ethanol. I’m getting ethanol delivered for about $7.50/gallon and the only IPA on the market is running $9/gallon even given that you can use less of IPA its not economic to make the switch yet.
Check the label! Drug stores sell 70% to 90% isopropyl alcohol. Dollar stores sell 50% isopropyl alcohol.
~VOW
Breweries are making hand sanitizers now.
I did drafting work for a hundred years or so. Rubbing alcohol is great for cleaning Mylar maps and Rapidograph pens. Rubbing alcohol will also remove Magic Marker from many surfaces (like little boy skin, enamel or acrylic painted surfaces, paneling, Mylar, acetate, dry-mark boards…)
Rubbing alcohol will take ball point pen ink off of clothes–remember than pen that went through the dryer?
I also make my own eyeglasses cleaner from rubbing alcohol.
We use a lot.
~VOW
~VOW, it’s the 70%.
I learned something. My rapidograph pens are nasty. One bottle goes in the art room. Yay!
Thx!
I still can’t get any paper products here. I’m not down to my last TP roll but am hoping availability improves soon. I really don’t want to have to “get creative.”
Isopropyl alcohol is one of the things that I happened to have a pretty good supply of when this all hit. I use it for cleaning and small scale de-greasing. Kind of weird to think about the times I was sloshing it around like it was water, now I’m pretty stingy with it. I keep a small pump spray bottle in my backpack.
I would like to find some Lysol concentrate. I’m down to my last bottle and I’m using a lot of it at work. All my company is providing is bleach water. According to Michigan State University, bleach water is only good for 24 hours after mixing and the spray bottles they give us are sitting around for days and who knows if the mixture is strong enough.
MSU on disinfecting with bleach
EDIT: Yikes, misidentified the university! Apologies.
Rumor in my town is that the Targets sometime have it but keep it at the counter to prevent anyone from hoarding it all or stealing it. So maybe calling stores before one goes to see if they do the same might be a good idea.